Bag-expanding means



Feb. 22, 1944. R. P. ALLEN 2,342,324

BAG-EXPANDING MEANS File d June 24, 1942 2 Sheen -Sheet 1 //Vx EN7'oe:

EHEA P- HLLEN,

R.- P. ALLEN BAG-EXPANDING MEANS Filed June 24, 1942 Feb. 22, 1944.

2 Sheets-Sheet 2 IIIIIIIJ 11111111111111 Patented Feb. 22, 1944 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE BAG-EXPANDING MEANS Rhea P. Allen, Richmond Heights, Mo., assignor to Brooks Paper Company,

corporation of Missouri Application June 24, 1942, Serial No. 448,239 (Cl. 229-14) Claims.

This invention relates generally to packing and shipping containers and, more particularly, to a certain new and useful improvement in means for expanding a folded or fiat bag or other such receptacle into open condition for facilitating the housing and filling of the bag within an outer or so-called shipping container.

My invention has for its primary object the provision of means preferably in the form of a foldable sleeve constructed and attached to a foldable bag ,in such manner that, when expanded, the attached bag will also be expanded or opened and retained in such condition for enabling ready, convenient, and facile disposition of the bag into an outer or shipping container and the filling and sealing of the bag when so disposed or housed.

And with the above and other objects in view, my invention resides in the novel features of form, construction, arrangement, and combination of parts presently described and pointed out in the claims.

In the accompanying drawings (two sheets)- Figure 1 is a plan view in open condition of a blank scored for folding for the construction of the bag reinforcing and expanding sleeve;

Figure 2 is a plan view, partly broken away and in section, of a Cellophane, paper, or other flexible bag in fiat condition;

Figure 3 is an enlarged fragmental sectional view of the bag taken approximately on the line 33, Figure 2; t

Figure 4 is an enlarged transverse sectional View of the bag taken approximately on the line 44, Figure 2;

Figure 5 illustrates the bag and its reinforcing and expanding sleeve in juxtaposed relation for permanent connection;

Figure 6 illustrates thebag and its reinforcing and expanding sleeve in permanently joined unitary relation;

Figure 7 is a reduced elevational view of the sleeved-bag unit in expanded condition;

Figure 8 is a transverse sectional view of the expanded sleeved-bag unit taken approximately on the line 8-8, Figure 7;

Figure 9 is an enlarged elevational view, illustrating the expanded sleeved-bag unit being inserted within an outer rigid or semi-rigid packing or shipping container;

Figure 10 is a fragmen-tal vertical sectional view of the outer container, illustrating fragmentally an expanded sleeved-bag unit housed therein;

Figure 11 is a transverse sectional "view of an St. Louis, Mo., a.

expanded sleeve-bag unit and its housing outer container taken approximately on the line I l--l I, Figure 10;

Figure 12 is a reduced elevational view, illustrating a housed, expanded, and filled sleeve-bag unit in course of sealing; and

Figure 13 is a plan view, illustrating a housed, expanded, filled, and sealed sleeve-bag unit, with the flaps of the outer container ready for folding thereover for handling and shipment.

Referring now more in detail and by reference characters to the accompanying drawings, which illustrate a preferred embodiment of my invention, A designates a Cellophane, paper, or other flexible bag of any selected or standard form. Preferably the container A is constructed of an oblong-rectangular sheet, section, or blank a of Cellophane, paper, or other flexible material having its opposite end-portions I, I, folded and overlapped and adhesively or otherwise suitably fixed together, as best seen in Figure 4, the so formed tube, as it may be described, then having one side margin 2 folded overlappingly upwardly and adhesively or otherwise fixed to and upon the body of the tube, as best seen in Figure 3, and the section or blank a being thus converted into a bag A open at its opposite or upper margin and normally flat.

B designates what may be well termed a reinforcing and expanding foldable sleeve for the bag A. The sleeve or member B is constructed of an oblong-rectangular sheet or blank b of suitable or so-called semi-rigidity, such as and preferably, for example, lightweight cardboard, which is transversely scored, as best seen in Figure 1, to include a so-called full front section or panel 3, a so-called full rear section or panel 4, pairs of side-panel-forming half-sections 5, 5, and t, t, and a sealing-flap l, the blank b being provided, as at 8, for purposes presently appearing, upon its opposite side margins and the flap i with a layer of suitable adhesive, and the several panels of the blank b being devoid of end-walls or socalled end-wall-forming-flaps.

It will be understood that the bag A may be of any selected size and dimensions and that the sleeve B will be of such corresponding dimensions that one of its full sections and two of its halfsections, as, for instance, full panel 3 and one each of its half-sections 5 and 6,will collectively or jointly equal in width the width of a particular bag A when the latter is in flat collapsed condition, as best seen in Figure 5. v

In joining a flexible bag A and a semi-rigid sleeve B, an adhesive-equipped blank I) is disposed in full open condition flatwise upon a suitable support, and a. folded or fiat collapsed closedmouth bag A fiatwise disposed in such a manner thereupon that, as also appears in Figure 5, its opposite side margins will register with the score lines between the respective side-panelforming half-sections 5, 5, 6, 6, of the blank b and with the lower margin of the blank b spaced from the lower margin 2 of the bag A a distance, as at 9, equal approximately to the width of one of the side-panel-forming sections 5 or 6 of the blank I). The remaining half-section 6 and full panel 4 of the blank I) are now folded inwardly over and upon a part or portion of the exposed face of, and adhesively secured marginally'to, the bag A, and then, in turn, the opposite half-section 5 is likewise folded inwardly over and upon, and adhesively secured marginally to, a part or portion of the exposed face of the bag A and the flap l folded down upon, and adhesively fixed to, the free marginal portion of the folded panel 4, the bag A and sleeve B then having the fixed co-operative or unitary relation best seen in Figure 6.

It may here be observed that each combined t pair of the side-panel-forming sections 5, 5, and 5, 6, and each full panel 3 or 4 are equal in width, so that, when open or expanded, sleeve B takes the form of a rectangular or square open-end tube, and hence, when a foldable sleeve B of a unit or sleeve-equipped bag A is opened or expanded, its companion bag A, as shown in Figures 7 and 8, will bodily open and take the form of an oblong-rectangular receptacle open at its upper margin or mouth, as at H), and with its closed lower or base portion 9 not only folded upon itself and under the lower margin of, and angularly, as at a projecting with its seam 2 outwardly beyond, the sleeve B, as best seen in Figures '7 and 8, but also so presented beyond the lower margin of the sleeve B for folding when, as shortly appears, the expanded unit AB is disposed within an outer container.

C designates an outer container of any suitable rigid or semi-rigid cardboard or the likeand of such relative dimensions as to provide for the free slidable disposition therein of a combined.

sleeve B and bag A when in fully expanded condition.

Accordingly, with a sleeve B and bag A, so, as

a unit, opened into fully expanded form, as illustrated in Figures '7 and 8, the same may vary readily, also as a unit, be endwise slidably housed within a container 0, the angular base-portions 9 thereof, in such disposition of a unit sleeve B and bag A within a container C, folding up upon the opposite sides of the sleeve B, as illustrated in Figure 9, and being snugly nested between the sleeve B and container C when the unit sleeve B and bag A is fully housed within the container C, as illustrated in Figures 9 and 10. So housed within the container C, the bag A is maintained by the sleeve B in fully expanded or open condition, enabling facile and convenient filling thereof.

And the bag Abeing filled, the open upper or mouth portion it thereof mayin any suitable manner be folded upon itself and then sealably closed, as indicated in Figure 13, when, as will be also understood, the foldable flaps H of "the, outer container C may be readily folded inwardly and overlapped one upon the other and sealed,

in closed condition for shipment.

As so housed, the sleeve B functions also as. a

reinforcement in protecting the bag. A during,

handling and shipment of the container C, and the unit or combined bag A and sleeve or expander B are, in turn, fully protected during handling and shipment by the outer housing container C.

The containers C and the sleeve-and-bag units when folded occupy little space and may hence be compactly shipped, and both may be quickly opened and assembled for packing.

It should be understood that changes and modifications in the form, construction, arrangement, and combination of the several parts of the sleeve-and-bag units may be made and substituted for those herein shown and described without departing from the nature and principle of my invention.

' wall for the side Having thus described my invention, what I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. In combination, a flexible normally flat bag, and means for expanding the bag into open condition, said means including an expander constructed of an oblong-rectangular semi-rigid sheet of foldable material of reduced width relatively to the height of the bag and scored intermediate its ends to comprise a plurality of hingedly connected front and rear wall panels and a plurality of side-wall forming sections of reduced width relatively to the width of said panels, said sheet being folded upon itself and upon the bag and also fixed to the bag intermediate the top and bottom thereof yvhen the bag is in flat folded condition and the bag and expander having such dimensions relatively to each other that the bottom end-portion of the bag, when the bag is expanded, is presented cutwardly beyond the adjacent margin of the expander a distance substantially equal to the width of a side-wall forming section of the expander.

2. In combination with a container, of a fiexible bag, and a semi-rigid sleeve engaged with the bag for maintaining the bag in open condition while in the container for facilitating filling thereof, the sleeve providing a reinforcing wall of the bag and the bag and sleeve having such dimensions relatively to each other and to the container that the bag, when expanded, has a foldable end-portion projecting outwardly beyond the adjacent margin of the sleeve and partially disposed intermediate the sleeve and the side wall of the container.

3. In combination with a container, of a hexible bag, and a semi-rigid sleeve engaged with a bag for expanding the bag into open condition and maintaining the bag in such condition while in the container for facilitating filling thereof, the sleeve providing a reinforcing wall for the side wall of the bag and the bag and sleeve having such dimensions relatively to each other and to the container that the bag, when expanded, has a foldable end-portion projecting outwardly beyond the adjacent margin of the sleeve and partially disposed intermediate the sleeve and the side wall of the container.

4. In combination with a container, of a flexibly foldable bag, and means in the form of a.

end-portion projecting outwardly beyond the for expanding the bag into open condition, the adjacent margin of the sleeve and partially disbag and sleeve having such relative dimensions posed intermediate the sleeve and the side wall that the bag, when expanded, has its closed botof the container. tom presented outwardly beyond the adjacent 5. In combination, a normally folded flexible 5 margin of the sleeve and its angular side-porbag having, when expanded, a closed bottom tions being then reversely foldable over the adwith opposed laterally outwardly presented anjacent marginal portion of the outer face of the gular side-portions, and a suitably rigid sleeve sleeve. engaged with the bag when in folded condition RHEA P. ALLEN. 

